Saturday, February 21, 2009

April and May 2008 in my Vegetable Garden

Spring is my favorite season, maybe because I can get back into the garden after a long absence due to winter. I normally plant lettuce quite early, but can't remember when I got my first plants in last year. I wasn't blogging, and didn't write it down.

The first three pics were taken April 22. I planted 3 kinds of onions. I prefer plants over bulbs because the onions get bigger and they don't try to flower. I tend to plant them fairly close, thinking I'm going to thin some to use for green onions. I don't get them thinned as much as I'd planned, and the onions don't get as big as they could, so I tried to give them more room last year.

It's good to keep onions and lettuce from drying out as they are growing. By the time the skins are forming on the onions, the lettuces are all out of the garden, and the onions should be kept on the dry side. Onions can be picked and used at any size all season.

I got some fabric that is for putting on grass seeds or garden plants because it was getting below freezing at night. I had just taken it off the lettuce in this pic, and put it on the peas coming up, to protect them from the rabbits, who normally eat them down to the ground. It worked! I start thinning lettuce by pulling plants out when this size, pulling the roots off, and eating what I've thinned.

There was some lettuce with the peas, too.

May 6, those are hollyhocks growing next to the compost pile, behind the lattice.

Still May 6, the hole on the left is where a holly hock I gave away had been. The violets I let grow and eat are in the middle, next to the "lovely" brick and spigot we used to be able to get water from. I think that flower on the upper right was a false sunflower that I later moved. There is a little volunteer bachelor button in the middle of the bottom.

May 12, look at all those onions!

May 15, from the flower bed in front, that I need to work on this year. I think that blue flower is a comfrey, that I could have put in a GBBD post if I was blogging then.

May 19, the buttercrunch and romaine were forming nicely. I didn't do as good a job of succession planting as usual, so had trouble keeping up with my thinning. The rabbits didn't mind.

May 19, the lamb's ears looked happy, but I dug most of it up to give away. There are a few pea plants in the right side of the picture.

May 22, everything was growing, and you can see garlic in the upper left side of the pic.

May 25, the garlic was thinned and put on the compost pile.

I planted lettuce between the onions and garlic. This was taken May 25, I think, after I thinned.

May 25, from the garlic area:

May 28, there is a potato plant on the upper left, and the row of kale was coming up on the left, too. The bachelor button on the far right was growing well.

May 28, from the entrance to the garden. The vine is perennial sweet pea.

Soon, soon, I will plant what I call my "gamble garden". This is the only gambling I do. The plants won't come up until the soil is warm enough, and then, like last year, there will be some below freezing nights. If I don't get a cold frame, I will use the green cloth again, and if I loose some of the crop, the plants I put in later will be coming along.

20 comments:

It's really neat to see how the garden progresses each month and even each week. The lettuce, peas and onions also look very happy together. It will be nice for you to keep track of it all while blogging. I had to looks at last years posts to see if we were ahead or behind. Come to find out we're right on schedule. I never would've known had I not had the blog. Have a great day. Dreary here.

It's great to see your garden growing in a single post. You're awesome, Sue! I've never grown veggies, fearing I'd not even reap a single fruit (I know I'm being crazy), but seeing so may posts all over the blogosphere and your post makes me want to start ripping off the seeds that my sis gave me.

It's fun to see the progress you veggies made in a relatively short time. April isn't all that far away. We can start planting a lettuce, onions and spinach then. My hubby will probably plant a few veggies in a cold frame in March.bright sunshine here today! :)

Tina, I'm glad my iphoto albums have dates on them. It's been fun going back and seeing what was blooming when something I'm looking for to post was at whatever stage.

Chandramoiuli, I'm glad you like my veggies. Find out when to plant which veggies for your seasons, and plant something you like to eat. Start small, and increase what kinds of veggies you try over time.

Catherine, The space is about 15 by 35 feet. It is on the north side of the garage and driveway, so about 2/3 of it gets shaded by the garage. There seem to be more weeds that grow there than in my flower beds.

Kerri, It is fun to see how quickly lettuce and other greens grow. I forgot to point out the radishes that were growing there, too.

Have you posted a pic of your cold frame? That would be fun to see the progress of plants in.

Shady Gardener, I'm glad you liked the progression. Yes, I am so looking forward to doing it again!

Sue, these pics of your wonderful veggie garden are making me HUNGRY! One of the first things we harvest from our garden is spinach and I'm getting hungry for some. Maybe I'll try growing some now in the cool basement under lights. Sound like a good idea? Seeds are cheap! Spinach is yummy!

Lovely pictures sue and like you i can't wait for the spring season too. Its one of my favorite seasons and as you said happy Spring time to all of you. We have some flowers blooming too in our garden.....will take the pictures and post soon specially for you.

Kylee, I've never grown spinach inside before, but I think it's been done. One thing I've noticed, is that people think the greens have to mature like other veggies, and wait for them to reach a certain size before harvesting them. If you grow spinach in the house, go ahead and start picking the leaves when they are small.

Thanks, Linda, I am so glad it's almost March, and not November. At this point, though, it really is hard to wait for planting time.

Thanks Darla, I'm thinking of planting more flowers in there this year, and putting some of the veggies in my front bed.

NItu, Thanks to you, too for the nice comment and plans to post flower pics for me. I'll be watching for them!

Soon all the plants will grow again in your garden, how beautiful, isn'it? I am looking very much forward to Spring. But today it was snowing again, Winter will not leave this year.Thank your for you visiting on my SkyWatch Friday.My best wishes to you, have a good week.Elfe

My grandson went home a little while ago, and now I get to do some more blogging. Yea!

Thanks for the comments!

Paula, I have a different camera, so I'm hoping my pics will be less grainy this year. Enjoy taking pics of yours.

Elfe, You're right, it will be soon! I'm seeing more green coming up, but it's too soon to take up last year's dead stems.

Cameron, Thanks, and it's not finished. LOL That was just April and May.

Robert, I had so many pics I was exporting, I decided to limit it to April and May. :o) I have more coming, but don't remember if I have any of the eating of it, but once I start thinning, I eat salad every day until it gets too hot for it, and it bolts or gets too bitter. I sometimes see gardens where the lettuce is thick and getting big, and I wonder why it's not getting eaten.

Thanks Marnie, This evening, I exported some pics from June into a file for my next veggie garden post, but didn't get finished. As I was looking, I enjoyed looking at what flowers were blooming when, and trying to remember which ones I was planning on moving in the area in front of the garden.

I welcome comments and questions from anyone, including those who do it anonymously. Some people find my posts by doing searches, and I like hearing from them. I guess spammers won't even read this message, but I will delete spam as soon as I see it.

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About Me

I am married with 2 grown children and two grandsons. We live in the house on a corner lot that my husband grew up in. I have been talking him out of more grass over time in order to increase space for gardening. We have veggies, annual, biennial and perennial flowers, some wild and/or native, and herbs sharing growing areas. We recently had to have the tree in our front yard cut down, and I am putting mostly native plants in this area. I love seeing insects, especially bees and butterflies frequent the blooms, and have some plants for the caterpillars to eat.

Short-toothed mountain mint

Echaneaceas paradoxa and pallida

Wild quinine

Whorled milkweed

Ironweed

Wild senna

Grayhead coneflower 7/25/13

All photos are taken by me, and are current unless stated otherwise. They enlarge when clicked on, or you can push "control" and "+" several times, until the photos are a size you like. (If I am in the pic, then it was taken by my husband.)

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